Better numbers will give Greenwood track and field team more depth and flexibility

Numbers on the Greenwood track and field team are going up this year as more athletes join the ranks. The team has many members returning from previous years, giving the team both depth and experience with which to work.

A total of 21 athletes make up the Indians’ roster this season, a number nearly evenly divided between girls and boys. Steve Geisthardt, coach of the Greenwood team, said with the numbers, the team will be able to compete in more events than it was able to in the past, boosting its ability to score points at meets.

“We have 21 kids, definitely we are up from last year,” he said. “We only lost two seniors, and with the events we are able to do, we have something for everyone. We can’t do pole vault obviously, but other than that, we should have someone at least for each event at a meet.”

With 13 girls, Geisthardt said he expects their numbers will allow them to accomplish more than they have in previous years. Seniors Kia Abel and Lauren Ingold, and junior Katlund Etlicher -- all returning athletes -- are expected to do well this year and lead the girls on the track. The rest of the team, he said, is fairly new and hopes their potential will be found as the season goes along.

“We have four freshman girls and a number of people who are out for the first time,” he said. “They are obviously new, but I think we have some good athletes and we can turn this into something good. Kia, she was successful in the 300 hurdles last year, we hope to continue with that. Lauren started throwing last year, but she never tried the discus. She is going to be trying that this year. Katlund was out last year and she did well in distance running. She should be able to do well and place at conference.”

Though he is not sure yet what events each of the new girls will eventually choose, he said they have the numbers to try running a few different relay teams at meets.

“With our girls the numbers will allow us to run two or three relays,” he said. “We don’t have the distance runners to run a 4x800 on the girls side, but we should have enough runners to try the shorter relays.”

The boys team, though smaller with only eight, has much more experience returning to its roster. Last year, the boys had several runners make it to sectionals, including their 4x800m relay team of Cody Eckes, Avrey Horvath, Ashtin Palms and Christian Thomas who all are returning this year. Palms and Thomas also made strides in the 300 hurdles and Geisthardt said he would not be surprised to see all those young men having similar successes this year.

“On the guys side we have the 4x800 team that made it to sectionals last year,” he said. “We were third in the conference last year somehow, but I don’t know if we will be able to repeat that. It’s a little thinner to fill out a full roster with only eight guys. And we are sharing two guys (Rogan Travis and Caden Arteman) with the baseball team. It will be new for us.”

The girls team is made up of freshmen Kayla Grambsch, Ella Riemer, Bria Thomas and Alyseah Anderson. Sophomores on the team are Sarah Beth Reiff, Candela Soto and Lou Gallay, and juniors are Ricorda Goetze, Tatumn Palms, Katlund Etlicher and Tora Degenhardt. Seniors for the girls are Kia Abel and Lauren Ingold.

There are no freshmen on the boys team this year, with sophomore Cody Eckes being the youngest on the team. Juniors on the team are Hunter Ellis, Angel Anderson, Christian Thomas, Caden Arteman and Rogan Thomas. Seniors on the team are Ashtin Palms and Avery Horvath.